Video: behind the scenes with Tom Hiddleston

Some say The Stig was expecting recently-scalped Hull City midfielder Tom Huddlestone on the show this week, and was gravely disappointed.

He was alone, however, as the reaction from Mr Tom Hiddleston’s army of online fans have made clear on TopGear.com in the past few days. Yes, on Friday Mr Hiddleston successfully swapped War Horse for horsepower to helm our Vauxhall Astra Techline for the new series.

And it’s fair to say conditions were… damp. In fact, it was possibly the wettest lap we’ve had in our eleven years of Top Gear. As you can see below in some exclusive out-takes from filming…